ee had been illuminated; the electric lights were shining and
the candles twinkling, when little May came toddling into the hall.
She was a dear baby, and her pretty hair lay in soft ringlets all over
the little head. Her dainty white frock was short, and she wore little
white socks and slippers. She came forward a few steps, and then spied
the tree and stood stock still.

"What a booful!" she exclaimed, "oh, _what_ a booful!"

Then she went up near the tree, sat down on the floor in front of it,
clasped her little fat hands in her lap, and just stared at it.

"I yike to yook at it!" she said, turning to smile at Patty, in a
friendly way. "It's so booful!" she further explained.

"Don't you want something off it?" asked Patty, who was now sitting on
the floor beside the baby.

"Zes; all of ze fings. Zey is all for me! all for baby May!"

As a matter of fact, there were no gifts on the tree, only decorations
and lights, but Patty took one or two little trinkets from the
branches, and put them in the baby's lap. "There," she said. "How do
you like those, baby May?"

"Booful, booful," said the child, whose vocabulary seemed limited by
reason of her excited delight.

And then a jingle, as of tiny sleighbells, was heard outside. The door
flew open, and in came a personage whom May recognised at once.

"Santa Claus!" she cried. "Oh, Santa Claus!" And jumping up from the
floor, she ran to meet him as fast as her little fat legs could carry
her.

"Down on the floor!" she cried, tugging at his red coat. "Baby May's
Santa Claus! Sit down on floor by baby May!"

Jim Kenerley, who was arrayed in the regulation garb of a St.
Nicholas, sat down beside his little girl, and taking his pack from
his back, placed it in front of her.

"All for baby May!" she said, appreciating the situation at once.

"Yes, all for baby May," returned her mother, for in the pack were
only the child's presents.

One by one the little hands took the gifts from their wrappings, and
soon the baby herself was almost lost sight of in a helter-skelter
collection of dolls and teddy bears and woolly dogs and baa lambs and
more dolls. To say nothing of kittens and candies, and balls, and
every sort of a toy that was nice and soft and pleasant.

The doll Patty had brought, with its wonderful wardrobe, pleased the
baby especially, and she declared at once that the doll's name should
be Patty.

Having undone all her treasures, the baby elected to ha